A travel agent that has now closed has left Muslim families thousands of pounds out of pocket after booking their Hajj pilgrimage trip.<\/p>\n
As many as 20 worshippers used Taha Travel in Small Heath to book their Hajj packages for July 27 which cost around \u00a34,300 per person.<\/p>\n
The director of the travel agency, Jameil Kendawi, told them that their trip to Mecca, Saudi Arabia was cancelled because of issues with their visas – just one day before they were supposed to travel.<\/p>\n
In a long text message he apologised and said he would provide a full refund in \u2018less than 40 days\u2019.<\/p>\n
Since then the shop has closed down and former customers say they have not been refunded.<\/p>\n
Trading standards said it is investigating the customer complaints and are not able to comment at this time.<\/p>\n
Mohammed Asif Qureshi, 61, paid \u00a320,500 for himself, his wife, brother and sister-in-law to go on the holy pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe got a text saying it was off, that was hard to take.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I broke the news to my wife she was in tears, she was so upset, it\u2019s not been easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought this could happen, this is something that is a religious duty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel really upset when I think about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mohammed said the only reason why he booked his trip with Taha Travel was because they were the only agents that could offer him the specific dates he requested.<\/p>\n
He said he was given a cheque for \u00a33,200 from Taha Travel as part of his refund, but it bounced when he tried to cash it in the following day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to Hajj, I\u2019ve been to Umrah twice, I have never ever had a problem,\u201d Mohammed said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo with people who are Atol protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t check because he\u2019s a Muslim, he\u2019s doing something good for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nasma Omer, 45, suffers from heart problems but delayed\u00a0an operation so she could go to Mecca on July 27.<\/p>\n
But she also found out her trip was cancelled the day before, via text message.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cried and cried and cried,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI paid the money, my bags were ready and my family from Sudan were waiting for me there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sick for two weeks, I made everything ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really affected me and my heart is not well, it\u2019s not been easy for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She saved for more than four years and demanded her money back from Taha Travel.<\/p>\n
She also claims she was given a cheque for \u00a33,500 that did not clear.<\/p>\n
Nasma said: \u201cI do not understand how this could happen, we paid this money for Allah and this is super bad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no money to book it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another woman paid \u00a38,000 for her and her friend to perform Hajj.<\/p>\n
Sara Amin, 45 was swayed by how good he deal was and a friend had used Taha Travel to go to Umrah, the trip to Mecca than can be undertaken at any time of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so upset. I was ready. It was an awful nightmare,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something that shocked me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt broke my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sara had spent 10 years saving for the trip before her son helped her out with the rest of the money.<\/p>\n
Their last contact with Kendawi was at the end of October, according to her.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI said to him, I will never forget or forgive you for this money.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he compensated me for the pain I felt, It would cost more than \u00a31 million because it is not just about the money.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s once in a lifetime when you go to Hajj, everything is ruined.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sara said he has been paid back just \u00a3500 so far.<\/p>\n
Imran Hussein\u2019s 64-year-old dad, Faraqat, also booked to go to Mecca on July 27 with Taha Travel.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s one of the biggest things for a Muslim, he was saving his whole life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was ready for it and really heartbroken when he found out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really sad a lot of people have been affected by this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naveed Sadiq, 43, is trying to get members of the Muslim community to think twice before they book their trips.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe community stays quiet on these issues, we felt enough is enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a duty upon us to ask the question, are you Atol approved?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking to sort out these people out their Hajj trips and we\u2019re going to be doing a few charity car washes to raise some money.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A travel agent that has now closed has left Muslim families thousands of pounds out of pocket after booking their Hajj pilgrimage trip. As many as 20 worshippers used Taha Travel in Small Heath to book their Hajj packages for July 27 which cost around \u00a34,300 per person. The director of the travel agency, Jameil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,3,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}